Pine voles (sometimes known as woodland voles) are found in a variety of habitats such as deciduous and pine forests, abandoned fields and orchards.

Voles are not a species which pose a major public health hazard because of their lack of contact with man. However, they are capable of carrying disease organisms transmissible to man, such as plague and tularemia; therefore, care should be taken when handling them.

Pine voles (sometimes known as woodland voles) are found in a variety of habitats such as deciduous and pine forests, abandoned fields and orchards.

Voles are not a species which pose a major public health hazard because of their lack of contact with man. However, they are capable of carrying disease organisms transmissible to man, such as plague and tularemia; therefore, care should be taken when handling them.

The meadow vole, also called the meadow mouse or the field mouse, is a small, compact rodent approximately 4 1/2 to 7 inches in length, with small round ears and a tail about twice the length of the hind foot (Figure 1).

Because pine vole tunnels are shallow and narrow, heavily infested areas have the appearance of being cultivated (In contrast to voles, moles create piles of fresh earth up to 9 inches high and raise large serpentine ridges in turf).

At the least, monitor voles at the end of the breeding season (early winter) when populations reach their maximum and at the beginning of the breeding season (spring) when populations are at a minimum.

Voles are prey for many predators (for example, coyotes, snakes, hawks, owls, and weasels); however, predators do not normally control vole populations.

Voles may cause extensive damage to orchards, ornamentals, and tree plantings due to their girdling of seedlings and mature trees.

Voles pose no major public health hazard because of their infrequent contact with humans; however, they are capable of carrying disease organisms, such as plague (Yersinia pestis) and tularemia (Francisilla tularensis).

Water voles are the UK's fastest declining mammal and the risk of further decline due to being mistaken for brown rats will have serious implications for an already vulnerable mammal.

The water vole has small hidden ears, silky mid-brown fur, a blunt nose and a shorter furry tail, whereas the brown rat has big ears, grey brown fur, a pointed nose and a long, pink and scaly hairless tale.

Water voles have disappeared from almost 90 per cent of the sites they occupied in the UK in the last 60 years due to the loss of their riverbank homes and being preyed upon by the non-native American mink.